Dear Donna

Are gift bags a somewhat recent phenomenon? I wonder this because I realized I don't even have rolls of wrapping paper anymore like I remember having in our house growing up. Now it's bags and bags of gift bags. Help please, dear Donna.

Dear Reader,

I admit to having a large collection of gift bags. Most I have received and fully intend to reuse. I even have a special gift bag that Brandi and I give to one another on our birthdays. It’s going on 7 years of use now, so it’s a bit tattered. (the bag, not our friendship)

For me that is the first perk of gift bags. They are reusable and therefore deemed more eco-friendly. I also love the ability to squeeze in an awkwardly shaped present. And despite my Grandma Jean’s best efforts, she could not help me master the clean cut corners and perfectly placed tape. My gifts truly look like I let a 5 year old wrap them for me.



But I also agree with Will Wright who writes on his blog, “Call me crazy, but I think what's outside the present often says more than what's inside. Maybe I'm a gift wrapping snob - I don't know. But to me a gift, any gift, wrapped in gift wrap means more than the same gift stuck in a gift bag. The thing is, I'm not sure why. The message a gift bag sends, wrongly or not, is something like - I stopped off on the way to your house to buy this gift. I had to wrap it in the front seat of my car, so here's your gift bag.”

It’s like sending emails instead of hand written letters.

Or texting instead of calling.

It’s the societal trend to use the most expedient vice to complete a task and I admit to joining the frenzy. But what message are we sending? Are we too busy to care for one another?

Before I get too deep here, I must also address the other portion of this question. When did the gift bag appear on the scene? My Dear Donna Research Team has determined it was sometime in the 1980’s.

About the same time we were blessed with jellies, big hair and Alf.